Biodynamic Conference

From Friday afternoon,May second,through Saturday the third, Camphill Mountshannon hosted a conference on Biodynamic Gardening. Friday night there was a presentation given by Finbarr Murphy, followed by an exercise in observation on the shores of Lough Derg.

After breakfast on Saturday morning, there was a lecture covering the history of the local Seed Savers chapter in nearby Scariff,combined with a walk around the Seed Saver's grounds. This was followed by lunch,along with much good humor and laughter.

Saturday afternoon there was a talk about seed production aimed especially at growers/farmers/gardeners. (Seed Savers is an organization that preserves and distributes the seeds of traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables).

Ricardo,our gardener (who helped to coordinate the conference) and Tamara, our co-worker from Russia,attended. In all there were nearly thirty people present for the weekend.

Easter 2014

Camphill Mountshannon celebrated Easter this year with a predawn trip to Holy Island. We rowed across Lough Derg in the early morning, arriving in time to watch the sun rise. The silence in the morning was quite beautiful, with only the sound of water rippling off the oars. Once we arrived on the island, we sang traditional songs and waited for the sun's appearance over the water and trees. The sky was clear this year, and the sun rose red through streaks of pink, blue and amethyst. Afterwards we rowed to shore and had a very nice breakfast at Inis house, then an Easter egg hunt at Oak house-- a great time for everyone.

Spring 2014

In the past two months we have said good bye to Fenja, our friend and invaluable co-worker from Germany, and welcomed three new co-workers: Ronja is from the south of France, near Montpelier. Eunae is from Seoul Korea. And Tamara, our newest arrival (as of March 4th) is from Moscow. All three are doing great and adapting well to Camphill life. We should have some varied and very interesting meals in the months to come, since all of them will get a chance to cook...

It’s great to have them here!

Raheen Wood School Fundraiser

In December The Raheen Wood Waldorf School held a fundraiser, and Camphill Mountshannon was happy to participate, setting up a display table with many different woven items for sale to benefit the school.
Co-workers took turns watching the table and talking to the passers-by. When they weren't working, both co-workers and residents alike were free to enjoy food and drinks, music, craft workshops and much more.
All in all, it was a very nice day for everyone, and a good source of funds for the school - which is a valuable asset to the community.

The Eagles Have Landed

After a 100 year absence the White Tailed Eagle is again nesting on an island very close to the harbour in Mountshannon. Richard is a keen visitor to the harbour, where he has become friends with several long term eagle watchers. The rumour is that the eggs have hatched and as of this week (8th. May 2013) we have two new residents in the village!

Scariff Harbor Festival

This bank holiday weekend, Scariff was a very lively town during the Harbor Festival. Things started off with a concert by Mary Black on Friday evening. A number of people from the Camphill Community attended, and all enjoyed her music. We also had a stall at the main square on Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, it was a rather wet weekend and we were unable to display some of our woven goods( made in our own weavery).

Those who had the chance to see what we had for sale showed genuine interest though, and we had many good conversations as a result. Meanwhile the festival went on all day and night. There was a busking competition and there were cooking lessons and crafts activities (blacksmithing, spinning wool, woodworking, basket making, etc) by CELT.

There were activities by youth groups and other civic groups too. There was even a free boat ride from the river to Lough Derg.Finally, there was an open concert by ASLAN Saturday night. Some of us would have stayed all day and all night if we could have! Anyway, after such a busy weekend, we are back to work, hopefully not too exhausted by the weekend...

Mountshannon Art Festival

The annual Mountshannon Art Festival was held between 29th of May and 7th of June.

It is the time of year that we realize that there are so many talented people locally in art, music, craft and the other kind of skills. There were 2 concerts, one comedy show, a couple of art exhibitions, and the presentations by the local youth group(music, fashion show, etc). There were more about films, set dance, story telling and puppet show for children, etc. and More.

On Sunday afternoon, there was a green fair at the centre of the park, the Aistear. We participated in the activities and had our own stand. We were there to meet people to let them know who we were and what we were doing in the community so that we could get integrated in the area more.

We were selling some products that were made by our people in the weaving workshop. They brought lovely bright colors in the park and they attracted a lot of people to our stand. Another attraction was "The community mosaic" work. We asked the visitors to complete the mosaic picture with some tiles. It was a metaphor to explain about the community life. Each single piece doesn't create something special but together we can.

People just liked the mosaic activity anyway and a lot of children kept coming back to add more tiles to make the picture.
We were blessed by the good weather and had lovely time listening to nice music in the park.